godsoffortune: (Default)
The Far Shore Mods ([personal profile] godsoffortune) wrote in [community profile] thenearshore2018-11-01 08:17 pm

34 - Love is in the Air

Who: Everyone!
What: An enterprising pair of shinki is trying to spread love throughout the Far Shore with exciting blind dates.
When: February 14
Where: Hot romantic spots throughout Tokyo
Summary: Blind dates on Valentine's Day? Sounds like fun (or possibly a disaster, but everyone needs some good disaster stories.) That's not all that's going on, though. Ayakashi are looking to chow down on the negative emotions that a romantic holiday can generate, and those who aren't busy with their own dates might be sucked into helping out followers who need help to make the day go well.






The Dates

Blind Date Matchups


    Those who have signed up -- or whose friends and colleagues have signed them up -- for dates will get cards with specified times and meeting places inside for the big event. The cards don't list their dates' names, but instead have a matching symbol to allow everyone to find their proper partner. If anyone tries to stand up their date, they can expect a small and angry owl to harass them until they give in.

  • Date One: The Romantic Brunch.
    Couples will find themselves with reservations (and pre-paid coupons for the prix fixe menu) at a swanky French restaurant with a wide balcony overlooking the lake in a central Tokyo park. They can dine on dainty pastries, sweet milk coffees, bowls of grapes and hothouse strawberries, and a selection of fancy chocolates and petit-fours-- plus, some of the trees in the park are blooming in holiday-appropriate red and white!


  • Date Two: The Aquarium.
    Couples scheduled for this date have tickets to a rooftop aquarium in Ikebukuro: brightly colored fish, animals including penguins, seals and pelicans, a small petting zoo and plenty of shadowy, secluded nooks to cuddle in make for a fun lunchtime date. The tickets even include admission to the one o'clock penguin and seal show!


  • Date Three: The Amusement Park.
    This date sends couples to spend the evening enjoying themselves at a seaside amusement park. Ride the roller coasters! Take selfies with the costumed attendants! Share an overpriced ice cream cone while you watch the fireworks after sunset, then wind up the night with a ride on the colorfully lit Ferris wheel with a romantic view of the Tokyo skyline.


Ayakashi Menace

    There's more than just romantic couples out to enjoy themselves today. Romantic holidays can be tough for those whose love lives aren't so rosy, and as always, those negative feelings draw in ayakashi who are ready to ruin everybody's day.

    All across the city, besides the usual ayakashi, characters might encounter the following:

    Flocks of dove ayakashi whose mournful call induces self-doubt, suspicion and paranoia in everyone who hears it. Are your friends really your friends? Is your lover betraying you? Shouldn't you hurry up and stab them in the back before they can do it to you? These ayakashi are small and agile, difficult to catch but easy to destroy once they're caught... if you can overcome the urge to turn on your allies first.

    Long-fingered shadow ayakashi, large and powerful, and capable of sneaking around by blending into genuine shadows. These ayakashi draw those who are alone into their clutches, filling them with resentment and despair. Anyone battling them needs to watch out for the humans they might already have influenced, who may become unpredictable and violent as the ayakashi influencing them grows more desperate.

    Cute teddy bear ayakashi, that influence anyone they cling to into greedy obsession: they need attention, affection and gifts, and they can never have enough. When attacked, the teddy bears turn out to fight a little more like a grizzly bear than a stuffed toy, so gods and shinki beware!


Praying for Love

    Those who aren't busy with their own dates might find themselves busy taking care of other people's instead. On a day like this one, everyone's praying that things turn out perfectly! Prayers gods might hear include:

    "He's just got to ask me out! I made him the biggest box of chocolates... please, let senpai notice me!"

    "Does she really like me? Please, give me a sign."

    "I got concert tickets for our date, but it's supposed to rain. Please let me find a way to make this work out anyway!"

    "The restaurant I wanted to take him to isn't taking any more reservations for tonight. What can I do? I can't cook!"

    Wild Card -- players are free to make up their own romance-adjacent prayers for their characters to fulfill.




In Summary:

  • Enjoy your dates
  • Fight some ayakashi
  • Make sure to answer prayers for a good Valentine's Day
  • Have fun~
letteropener: (faintly worried smile)

[personal profile] letteropener 2018-11-04 04:18 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, this certainly is awkward.

[Obi has, if she recalls correctly, never seen her human form -- so this may be a first. But her voice is unmistakable, as is her hair as its three colors drift within it, totally out of sync with how her hair itself drifts.]

[Her smile is a small and embarrassed little thing as she walks closer, holding a flower she now rather suspects will see no use today.]


Hello, Obi.
yasei: (25)

[personal profile] yasei 2018-11-08 12:15 pm (UTC)(link)
[ The instincts of a wild beast. But her hair was a dead give-away anyway. His suspicions are definitely confirmed when he hears that unmistakable voice of his mistress.

Obi bats at the owl harassing him, and his smile is a little tight around his eyes. ]


....Hello, Mistress.....I didn't expect to see you here.
letteropener: (jaw clenched)

[personal profile] letteropener 2018-11-09 02:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Likewise, certainly. [She wonders if he signed up voluntarily or was tricked or coerced into it. Given the owl, she suspects the latter, but the truth is she knows so very little about him she can't begin to guess. Did he desire romance? Or perhaps he's using this as a way to find connection to escape her?]

[She would gladly free him from this date, but -- with a glance to the owl -- she suspects she won't be permitted to do so. So she speaks loudly and deliberately.]


Well. Let us sit and eat for a moment, shall we?

[If they put on a show for a bit, that might be all it takes.]
yasei: (80)

[personal profile] yasei 2018-11-09 11:50 pm (UTC)(link)
[ As a matter of fact he did sign up on his own- not that he's looking for romance, but he does enjoy being around people and getting to know them, even if he doesn't particularly likes having other people get to know him. He has to wonder about Mistress, though.

The owl hovers nearby, and Obi is almost as conscious of its presence as he is of Celestia's. Obviously uncomfortable with the situation, Obi rubs at a shoulder. ]


Mh, alright, I guess.

[ At their designated table, he pulls out a chair by hooking a foot around a leg.

Why- or more like how- are you looking like that right now, Mistress?
letteropener: (raised hoof)

[personal profile] letteropener 2018-11-11 04:39 am (UTC)(link)
[Celestia takes her own seat, gracefully, as it slides out for her and then back in once she's on it. Magic has its benefits, after all.]

I trust you've been well since last I saw you? [A legitimate question; Celestia makes a point of ignoring every feeling that comes through their bond, recognizing that he wishes no such intrusion in his life.]
yasei: (47)

[personal profile] yasei 2018-11-29 09:09 pm (UTC)(link)
[ He plants his ass on his chair and awkwardly rubs at his shoulder. How does this work? He has a job at a restaurant, but that's a cook, and brunch is such a strange concept in its own right, on top of it being with Mistress. ]

Wouldn't you sense if I'm not well, or something?

[ Isn't that part of a god's powers? To be able to sort of keep tabs on their shinki. And Obi has a lot of emotions that he doesn't talk about. ]

But yeah I've been well.
letteropener: (a smiling wave of hair)

[personal profile] letteropener 2018-11-30 02:45 pm (UTC)(link)
I sense the extremes of your emotions, yes, but I do my best to ignore them, and I have no context for them anyway, so I don't assume. [She respects his privacy, but she ignores them for her own sake as well -- there is nothing pleasant feeling emotions that aren't yours and you can do nothing about. Negative or positive.]

[She's keeping close eye on the owl out of the corner of her eye, vigilant without seeming to be.]
yasei: (2)

[personal profile] yasei 2018-12-02 07:47 pm (UTC)(link)
I...see... [ Okay, he didn't really expect that, to be honest. In his mind, royalty are invasive, manipulative, and controlling. Celestia has an ability of putting him a little out of balance when he comes to how he pictures them, which contributes to how uncomfortable she can make him. ]

How does this work exactly?
letteropener: (chatting away)

[personal profile] letteropener 2018-12-03 04:11 pm (UTC)(link)
[Considering how absolutely little Celestia interferes with him or pesters him, hopefully he's coming to understand that her respect is genuine. But then, maybe that doesn't help.]

The shinki bond? The date? Or my transformation?
yasei: (60)

[personal profile] yasei 2018-12-05 02:39 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Maybe a little bit. Not the respect bit, but he has noticed that she doesn't really pester him. He's not really sure what her true reasons are, yet. ]

The latter two.

[ Not that he's not a bit confused over the shinki bond still. ]
letteropener: (friendly explanation)

[personal profile] letteropener 2018-12-05 05:06 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, as for the human shape, I gained the power to change my shape when I came here. I can can do other creatures and animals too, of all sorts, but human shape is very helpful. It solves a lot of problems I would have otherwise, as I'm sure you can imagine!
yasei: (3)

[personal profile] yasei 2018-12-07 11:54 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, it's a god power? I though it might've been a Mistress Power. I can imagine that it might be easier sometimes, sounds like a fun power.

[ He'd like to try being a cat sometime. Or a bird, maybe. ]
letteropener: (fond smile)

[personal profile] letteropener 2018-12-08 04:09 pm (UTC)(link)
[Celestia nods, smiling more broadly.] Changing shape in such a manner is beyond my magic, though I'm flattered you thought it wasn't! It really is quite an experience, and it helps me understand humans all the better. I don't think I'd ever have quite gotten what fingers and only two legs were like without direct experience!
yasei: (51)

[personal profile] yasei 2018-12-28 02:52 pm (UTC)(link)
I'd guess it's a bit impossible to imagine the exact feeling of any other form without trying it.
letteropener: (that is how it is)

[personal profile] letteropener 2018-12-28 03:24 pm (UTC)(link)
You can't imagine how true that is. I never understood it before, myself. This has been such a fascinating experience!
yasei: (59)

[personal profile] yasei 2018-12-28 07:13 pm (UTC)(link)
Right, yeah, it must be. Thinking otherwise would probably be a pretty boring view on it.
letteropener: (imparted information)

[personal profile] letteropener 2018-12-30 02:43 am (UTC)(link)
Yes, it definitely would, and run.

[The owls have left them alone. They're briefly unwatched, their compliance assumed at this point. Now's their chance!]
yasei: (2)

[personal profile] yasei 2018-12-30 06:09 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah this is weird, so.

[ He was fully ready that things might be awkward because dating? Is something he doesn't really know if he knows about. But a date with Mistress is possibly the weirdest thing ever. He's ready to spring, and it's not like his shoulders has relaxed any during the short time they have been sitting at the table. ]

letteropener: (alarmed look around)

[personal profile] letteropener 2018-12-31 02:05 pm (UTC)(link)
...No, really. [She's immensely surprised that he missed that cue, having thought his reactions would be far swifter (and his natural inclinations right along the line).] Run. Escape.
yasei: (5)

[personal profile] yasei 2019-01-01 04:41 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Look, he's wary. Both of her and of the owl. Also, he doesn't like being told to run when he was already intending to. Don't meddle with his instinct and sense of false freedom. ]

That is my intention.

[ He slides his chair out soundlessly as he rises to his feet. ]

Well, then, Mistress. I will see you later.
letteropener: (sun goddess)

[personal profile] letteropener 2019-01-02 02:54 am (UTC)(link)
I am afraid you probably will, but I'll try to avoid it as long as I can.

[As far as she is concerned... she has no illusions at all about how much he despises her.]

[In a flash of light, she is simply gone.]
yasei: (25)

[personal profile] yasei 2019-01-02 10:54 am (UTC)(link)
[ How courteous of her. Well, then he'll be off too, finally.

It took way too long. ]